A heartbroken daughter has described the shock of her mum being given an Alzheimer's diagnosis after suffering periods of brain fog, just like Fiona Phillips did.
Emily Allen said she and the rest of her family struggled so much in dealing with the diagnosis that they wouldn't use the condition's full name, referring to it instead as "the big A". Her mum, Janet, was told she had Alzheimer's aged 60.
Janet and Andrew, her husband-of-45-years, tried desperately to hide the diagnosis from their three daughters, the youngest of who is Emily.
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Emily told the Mirror: "I think it's like the scariest thing. I think it's almost like the glimmer of hope that it could be anything else like you know; menopause, stress, depression, anything that could be causing memory loss. Alzheimer's is so horrible."
Initially Janet experienced brain fog and struggled to remember things like her debit card PIN. She was eventually diagnosed with young-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Janet's decline has been considerable since, so much so she had to quit her job and, in 2017, her family made the tough decision for her to move to a care home in Reading, Berkshire, where's she's been bedbound in recent years.
Since her diagnosis, Janet has had three grandchildren, and the strain it has put on her marriage with retired accountant Andrew, 73, has been particularly tough for her family.
Emily continued: "It's been really difficult for dad. He still goes, at least every other day, and you know, he really, really loves mum still and it's really, really heartbreaking.
"I and my sisters find it much harder to go because obviously that's our mum, and the relationship is completely different. Whereas I think for Dad, that's the love of his life and the women who gave him three children and you know that he hasn't let go of the old mum yet."
Around one in every 20 people with Alzheimer's disease is under the age of 65. This is called early or young-onset Alzheimer's. Janet, like Fiona Phillips, is among those diagnosed with this, as they were similar ages living otherwise healthy lives.
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